Summer heat is upon us in full force… July was HOT here! The first few days of August have been quite warm and humid as well. Of course along with the usual summer activities there’s been a fair amount of development going on. I’ll try to be brief and recap the latest news.
I had planned to have the UKA-3 kits ready to go in August; it looks like it may be as late as mid to late September instead. I made a couple of component layout changes to optimize the layout of the cabinet as much as possible. Fortunately I believe I have a sufficient number of UKA-2 kits in stock to last until the new kits are available. I will, however, be making the new kit available for pre-orders very soon.
I have mentioned to some of you my plans to replace the ID-O-Matic II with a new kit. I’m pushing this back a few months. I have been working with the prototype, and it is apparent to me that I have some further development to do. This is a completely new and different approach, using a new chip, completely new firmware, USB interface, 3.3V logic and more. I’m currently reworking the I/O circuits for better and easier connectivity to a wide range of gear. I’m also adding a few new features that need hardware changes, and that hardware needs to be tested. Since I’m running low on ID-O-Matic II boards, I’ll be making one last run of those to last until the new kit is ready. I anticipate having the ID-O-Matic II available through the end of the year at least.
Firmware version 1.31 was released for the MK-1. I’m currently working on V1.32, a minor patch release that addresses a couple of bugs in memory playback. It’s not quite ready yet, but will be released some time over the next few weeks. In the mean time — if you have some unexplained memory playback issues with MK-1 memories using the /R command, or linking memories with a /B in one of them, you can email me for the Beta version.
I’m juggling all of this around family and work obligations, and that means an occasional delay shipping or in answering emails. OK, I’ll admit — frequent delays answering emails. I’m doing my best to keep up and hope to improve as I get some things settled down.
Have a good summer (or winter, for our friends “down under”)!
Thank you and 73,
Dale – NØXAS
www.HamGadgets.com
